Media in the New Millennium

Posted by Elaine Ellis

Last week I got to be on a panel at the Organic Trade Association’s All Things Organic Conference on using social media for marketing. Also on the panel were Nathan Rice of Haberman and Jennifer Rose of the Organic Trade Association. It was my first food conference, but hopefully not my last. Especially because attending the trade show floor is like attending a deluxe version of sample night at Whole Foods. Everywhere you went there was free food! Yes please. I got to sample Ezekiel’s cereal, this amazing brown sugar whipped cream, Salad Girl Dressing and Toats (a biscuit for you, your dog AND your horse), etc. Each product is unique with unique organic ingredients created by people committed to you putting better food in your mouth. There are serious stories behind these products, and social media presents an affordable way to tell the story about these products.

I wanted to share some of my favorite examples of organic companies using social media to tell a story.

• Monterey Bay Aquarium iPhone App - Built by volunteer programmers, this app lets you look up information about the fish you’re eating. Want to know if the fish is over-harvested? The app can tell you. It’s social media helping you making smart decisions about the food you put in your mouth.

• The Greensheets – My college roommate launched this blog recently to channel her passion for healthy food and wellness. Long committed to get others thinking about what they’re putting into their body, her blog serves as a way to educate others beyond family, friends and clients.

• Rick Levine of Seth Ellis Chocolates -Rick from a local Boulder, Colo., organic chocolatier, twitters about the chocolates as they are made. He includes pictures and tells snippets of a story on how his chocolates are made. Plus, he offers free samples to anyone who stops by. It makes the chocolate making process very open.

• Taza Chocolates – I’ve purchased these chocolates for my Godparents from Foodzie previously, and they were a huge hit. They are a true bean-to-bar chocolate maker, and the only maker of 100% stone ground chocolate in the United States. Unlike Hershey’s chocolates, they know exactly where their organic ingredients come from and use their blog to tell the story of their producers and product. They know the source of their chocolate in Mexico, and they know the source of their chiles. It makes for a more compelling read than if Hershey’s were to blog that they received a 1,000 pound bag of sugar shipment? Not exactly appetizing.

You can tell at booths who were the ones who were passionate about the food, and those who were just working. You can guess who elicited the stronger response. Just like booths, it is those who are passionate about the food that they’re creating who should be at the helm of blogs and social media.

Salad Girl Dressing

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